Zen and Modernity

The womb of Zen was an established Chinese monastic culture that had been in existence for hundreds of years before the unique conjugation of Indian Buddhism and Chinese Taoism gave rise to the advent of Zen. The adepts and acolytes of these monastic communities lived a cloistered existence intended to insulate the mind from the myriad demands of secular existence. Freed from the demands of family and commercial society the mind was available for excursions into, and exploration of, an esoteric terra incognita. To enter into the Enlightenment decried by the historical Buddha: this was the goal of our Zen progenitors

The complexities of the modern world demand the constant exercise of consciousness to this-or that-or some other thing, so how in the world is one to participate in the discovery of Pristine Awareness while attending to all that is asked of the mind by the tasks of ordinary day to day existence?

The birth of Zen was an institutional recognition of the potential for, and insistence upon, awakening Pristine Awareness. The exercises and mysteries developed in monastic sanctuaries kept Zen alive and well, incubated as it were, giving time for humanity to ripen culturally that the truths of Zen might become accessible to the world at large. Perhaps, perhaps, the richness of modern language and the breadth of contemporary scientific understanding can bridge the chasm between Self-understanding and the gymnastics of consciousness required by everyday existence, so that Zen might take its rightful place in the maturation of human existence and the betterment of all life on Earth.